"I am a product of affirmative action, and I don't feel the slightest bit of stigma because I understand our history," said Shaw, who came to campus Thursday to speak in the Michigan League.

Several times during his talk, Shaw returned to the debate over race and affirmative action to put it in what he calls the proper historical context. He offered a spirited defense of affirmative action and explained how it's under attack by legal and political developments across the country.

Shaw said some advocates for race-neutral policies ignore the deep inequalities that still exist in opportunities for minority groups.

"People want to be right on the issues of racial equality in this country, and in fact they want to believe, they deeply want to believe that we have put all these problems behind us," he said, "in part because we've always wanted to deny the salience of race, but in part because America is bone-weary tired of the issue of race."

The recent passage of a constitutional amendment banning some types of public affirmative action policies in Michigan forced U-M to stop considering race in admissions and financial aid. In other states where similar bans took effect, replacing racial criteria with socio-economic criteria hasn't reached the same number of African Americans, he said.

"The same people who are waging war on racial diversity efforts have been waging war on poor people," he said. "And haven't been doing a thing to address that gap that's continuing to grow between the haves and the have-nots."

The audience included several hundred students and academics, and Shaw ended with some words of encouragement for them.

"We have to choose hope, and then work to make that hope a reality," he said. "So we have no choice but to continue to fight."